ISRAEL BOMBS GAZA CITY
Analysis by Richard Becker, co-coordinator West Coast International Action Center
A U.S.-supplied Israeli F-16 dropped a 2,000-pound bomb in the center of densely populated Gaza City at midnight on July 22, 2002, killing 15 people, nine of them children ranging in age from two months to 14 years, and wounding at least 176 others. The laser-guided bomb destroyed four residential buildings.
Among the dead were Sheik Salah Shehadeh, senior military commander of Izzedine Al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), his wife Layla and one of their daughters.
The next day more than 100,000 Palestinians joined in a massive and militant three-mile-long funeral march for the victims. Survivors painted on the sides of the devastated buildings: "This is the American weapon" and "This is the Israeli peace."
Marchers chanted "Death to Israel, death to America," and called for avenging the killings. Many of the speeches and slogans at the rally reportedly focused on the role of the U.S. in arming Israel. The Pentagon has provided the Israeli military with F-16s, attack helicopters and other high-tech weaponry that has been extensively used to attack Palestinian civilian areas.
In the 22-month-long Intifada (Uprising), more than 1,900 Palestinians have been killed, tens of thousands wounded and immense destruction done to Palestinian society. The U.S. government and corporate media have overwhelmingly focused attention on the 575 Israelis killed in the same period.
WORLDWIDE CONDEMNATION
Numerous governments and organizations issued statements condemning the Israeli bombing and the heavy civilian toll.
After 15 hours of silence, the White House issued a statement criticizing Israel in moderate language.
"This heavy handed action does not contribute to peace," said Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. No reference to "terrorism," the label that Washington hangs on every act of Palestinian resistance to the harsh and illegal Israeli occupation.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, repeatedly praised by President George W. Bush as "a man of peace" despite his blood-drenched history, hailed the Gaza attack as "one of our greatest successes."
TIMING OF ATTACK
The timing of the Gaza massacre must be seen as part of a pattern of similar operations carried out by the Sharon government. Time after time over the past two years, Sharon has ordered the most provocative actions, including numerous assassinations, in order to derail the "threat" of negotiations.
Only a few hours before the Gaza bombing, Hamas was reported to have offered to suspend operations against Israel if Israeli troops were withdrawn from recently reoccupied Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank.
According to the Washington Post, quoting an unidentified U.S. source "involved in the negotiations," all the Palestinian political parties had agreed to "a cessation of attacks on Israeli civilians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel," at 10 p.m. on July 22, just two hours before the Gaza attack.
"Many people believe that probably Sharon knew about this, and [the attack] was a provocation," designed to undercut the agreement, said the Post.
Galia Golan, of the Israeli Peace Now movement, said that the attack came "when there was progress for a cease-fire, even with Hamas," and that this "was an indication that Sharon is not interested in negotiations."
Hafez Barghouthi, editor of the al-Hayat al-Jadida newspaper, said: "The purpose of this operation was to stop the contacts between Palestinians and some Israeli ministers. Sharon wants there to be a Palestinian response, he wants more violence because he has no political solution."
Why would Sharon, the Bush-designated "man of peace," want more violence? The answer to the question--the obvious question never asked by the U.S. big business media--is quite simple.
Sharon's entire political and military career has been dedicated to conquering and absorbing all of historic Palestine into the Israeli state. To achieve this goal, Sharon has shown that he is willing to shed unlimited Israeli as well as Palestinian blood.
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